I just can't

Over the last year or so I've played through the numbered FFs in order up to VII, plus X and a bit of XII. Wanting a JRPG to sink my teeth into, I figured I'd go for the one I've never finished, FFIX. It's been several years since I last gave it a try, so I thought - maybe my tastes have changed. Or maybe I'll appreciate it more with a better knowledge of the games it is seeking to evoke nostalgia of.

Well, that didn't happen. In fact, I got significantly less far than I have during prior attempts to finish the game. I just cannot bring myself to care, and I can find very little enjoyment in it. I find the story utterly flat and boring, the characters largely lacking in any appeal (the ones that ARE interesting are all background characters or just shoved off to the side - if the party starred Beatrix, Blank, Freya, and Dr. Tot, it would be another matter.) and the gameplay is uninspired and unimaginative.

I've tried on its own merits and I've tried on the strength of nostalgia and on neither count does it do anything at all for me. I just don't understand why people love this game so much.

you're uninspired and unimaginative

My low-quality novels are not the topic of this thread.

Hmm, intriguing. What is it that these certain characters have in your eyes that the others don't?

Now you know how I feel about FFX and XIII. ;)

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Originally Posted by Mister Adequate

I've tried on its own merits and I've tried on the strength of nostalgia and on neither count does it do anything at all for me. I just don't understand why people love this game so much.

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There are many reasons I love this game which will mostly amount to "different people, different tastes," but when things are phrased in this manner it kind of puts me on the defensive because the statement feels more like a judgment rather than an invitation to discuss and try to understand.

Sorry, I did not mean to put you on the defensive with that; I was actually trying to imply people should tell me why they love it so much :p

Karifean: I don't really know. Most of the characters seem either boring (Garnet), one-note (Steiner), or are just unpleasant (Zidane).

I think one of the things that resonated with me were the messages of being true to yourself and pushing on through the bad times. As someone who went through a lot of crap in my life, those were both messages that resonated with me.

Vivi struggles with his identity but in the end he realizes that he is Vivi and is not defined by others who are like him. Then he goes on to face his impending death with a sense of dignity that most can't manage.

Zidane puts on a super perky, super flirty act to hide the fact that he's lost and doesn't know who he is, and then later has to face the horrors of why he exists and literally gets his soul removed but in the end he pushes on anyway.

Steiner starts off as a bumbling idiot who only knows blind devotion and has no thoughts of his own other than doing what he is told is best for the Queen and Alexandria. Eventually he learns to start thinking for himself and following his own moral code instead of the one instilled in him by outside figures.

Freya's lover just straight up forgets her and she handles it like a champ while still showing emotion and concern. She's heartbroken but she doesn't let that stop her and continues on anyway.

Garnet goes from a sheltered Princess with big plans that she can't execute to a powerful woman without the will to use those powers for a while. She deals with her adoptive mother dying after her adoptive mother went insane and she has to reconcile the feelings of anger and love as she watches this happen and tries to sort out the abuse she'd recently suffered. After finally overcoming her trauma she begins to grow as a strong Queen who does what she can for her nation.

Eiko is a six or seven year old little girl who has none of her people left and lives with moogle friends who are equally as dependent on her. She's literally one of the last of her kind, other than Garnet, she lost all of her loved ones who weren't moogles, and she handles it better than most adults would. She flirts with Zidane even though she knows she doesn't have a chance (because ew) but she also tries to get Garnet and him together because she truly wants them to be happy which is again a level of maturity some adults haven't reached.

The struggles they go through are some I can identify with, they feel real. They don't need a fantasy setting to work. And the way a lot of the characters interact is just, to me, very genuine and believable. The game has its flaws, of course, but I absolutely love it in spite of those

u just cray-cray

I've always had trouble getting into the game myself. The first time I beat it felt like a chore, I lost interest towards the end and just pushed through because I was so close, and any time I've tried to revisit it and see what others have seen, I just can't. I play less and less each time. I guess it just needs to resonate on some level. The nostalgia didn't do it for me, and I couldn't get behind any of the characters either

But whatever, I don't have to like every great game, and great games don't have to be liked by everyone. It's just not for me. But I am super happy for what it tried to do, and what it achieved doing for a lot of people. I have much respect for games that take routes like that

Imagine that Steiner is Steve. No jokes. Try it!

It's okay, I think we all have that one Final Fantasy that has a strong fanbase, but when you try and play it- you just hate it. I feel like this towards the OG FF Tactics.

FF 9 is just "not for you ", it's okay to stop and not keep playing if you want.

i can see where Mister Adequate is coming from... when i first got the game on the day it released i really wanted to like it... but immediately Steiner, Freya, and especially Quinna rubbed me the wrong way, i could not stand those characters in the least... i was upset that Beatrix, the most interesting character in the game, would never be a permanent party member, and a lot of the game mechanics really turned me off to it... i think what irritates me the most was i really wanted to like it and i just can't, and like some others here, every time i try to play it i play less of it with each revisit...

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Originally Posted by maybee

It's okay, I think we all have that one Final Fantasy that has a strong fanbase, but when you try and play it- you just hate it. I feel like this towards the OG FF Tactics.

FF 9 is just "not for you ", it's okay to stop and not keep playing if you want.

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Haha coincidentally enough, FFT is another much-beloved FF that I really can't get into. :p

I only really got into FFT by putting podcasts on in the background while fighting battles and doing my grinding.

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Originally Posted by Mister Adequate

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Originally Posted by maybee

It's okay, I think we all have that one Final Fantasy that has a strong fanbase, but when you try and play it- you just hate it. I feel like this towards the OG FF Tactics.

FF 9 is just "not for you ", it's okay to stop and not keep playing if you want.

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Haha coincidentally enough, FFT is another much-beloved FF that I really can't get into. :p

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I thought that I was the only one ! The gameplay is just soooooo slow, and the story and characters are like watching grass grow.

Don't see what others see in it. Tactics A2 really brightens everything up though imo.

Toss my vote in for FFT as well, but then again, it's the same for almost every SRPG since. I was brought up on Shining Force for strategy rpgs, and games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem, that only let you play the game during fights wears me out no matter how droll the plot and characters are. I wonder why more strategy rpgs forego their rpg parts and any interaction outside of combat is usually just a visual novel menu set-up and not actual gameplay. There's only one other SRPG I can think of that lets you walk around between fights and explore the world and talk to people and it's an obscure SNES game that can only be played with translation patches

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Originally Posted by Vyk

Toss my vote in for FFT as well, but then again, it's the same for almost every SRPG since. I was brought up on Shining Force for strategy rpgs, and games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem, that only let you play the game during fights wears me out no matter how droll the plot and characters are. I wonder why more strategy rpgs forego their rpg parts and any interaction outside of combat is usually just a visual novel menu set-up and not actual gameplay. There's only one other SRPG I can think of that lets you walk around between fights and explore the world and talk to people and it's an obscure SNES game that can only be played with translation patches

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Arc the Lad

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

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Originally Posted by Vyk

Toss my vote in for FFT as well, but then again, it's the same for almost every SRPG since. I was brought up on Shining Force for strategy rpgs, and games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem, that only let you play the game during fights wears me out no matter how droll the plot and characters are. I wonder why more strategy rpgs forego their rpg parts and any interaction outside of combat is usually just a visual novel menu set-up and not actual gameplay. There's only one other SRPG I can think of that lets you walk around between fights and explore the world and talk to people and it's an obscure SNES game that can only be played with translation patches

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Arc the Lad

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unrelated to anything but ive never played arc the lad games but

sephiroth and celes is in arc the lad 3???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhDqUwd2Hls


edit: set design in FF9 is spectacular, so maybe that'll get you going
architecture wise it's incredible
it's like a ghibli movie had sex with ff6

do yourself a favor and pick up the Arc the Lad Collection, best SRPG i've ever played, it doesn't punish the player for grinding up levels like Tactics does... that 5 hour dungeon in the first one though, it's even longer in AtL 2...

I keep forgetting they exist, and I think Wolf has reminded me a couple of times when I complain that nobody does tactical RPGs the way Shining Force does, and I keep forgetting about that series. My brother had loaned me the PS2 game, and I emulated the first 3, and played about 10 hours of the first one, and stopped for some reason. Probably a life event. Probably a house fire. And never got back to it. I'll have to grab them on my Vita...

Do any of them require prior knowledge? Are they direct sequels? Or can I jump into an older one first. I forgive a lot of Shining Forces quirks for nostalgia's sake. But I remember Arc the Lad 1 being rough around the edges, and I'm wondering if the sequels are more refined and/or easier to get into

Ark the Lad 1 & 2 are directly connected, and game saves carry over the first 3 games, there's 2 more that i know of for the PS2, Twilight of the Spirits and another one that i missed picking up so i don't remember its name offhand...

OT: i wish they'd do a re-release/remake of FF IX where they fix the Trance and do away with dumb stuff like requiring Magic Crystals to equip skills... also making Beatrix a permanent party member would drastically improve the game...

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Originally Posted by Vyk

I keep forgetting they exist, and I think Wolf has reminded me a couple of times when I complain that nobody does tactical RPGs the way Shining Force does, and I keep forgetting about that series. My brother had loaned me the PS2 game, and I emulated the first 3, and played about 10 hours of the first one, and stopped for some reason. Probably a life event. Probably a house fire. And never got back to it. I'll have to grab them on my Vita...

Do any of them require prior knowledge? Are they direct sequels? Or can I jump into an older one first. I forgive a lot of Shining Forces quirks for nostalgia's sake. But I remember Arc the Lad 1 being rough around the edges, and I'm wondering if the sequels are more refined and/or easier to get into

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The first two games were originally meant to be one game but Sony had them rush out what became the first game, so it's a lot more blah and incredibly short (the game can be finished in about ten hours) in comparison. AtL2 is a vast improvement in terms of gameplay and balance, though it gets really grindy with some of the late game missions, and probably has more characters than it should. The game also has a weird difficulty spike towards the end that is a bit annoying, especially with a final boss that is designed to be more frustrating than he should be, but it's also likely that I was simply too burnt out by the end and rushed it as well. With all that said, Arc 2 was a pretty cool game and it's tied very closely to Arc 1 which you should also play through. Arc 3 improves gameplay, but I didn't care for the story or characters as much.

Update I have since completed FF9 for the first time ever and my opinion of it has improved, modestly. I still don't rate it terribly highly, but I do have more understanding of where the appeal is now and I can see why other people would like it whereas when I made the OP it genuinely eluded me. 8/10 pretty good.

I love you again.

I was like OMG WTF BBQ during the Bahamut Vs Alexander scene. It was SOOOOOOOO epic at that time. :bigsmile:

Now it just left me wondering does Bahamut has a penis or something? Or the tail is actually something else?